


somethings still shine brighter on the other side

by starlight_lwt



Category: One Direction
Genre: Afterlife AU, Artist Zayn, Depressed Louis, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, Soldier Harry, Soldier Liam, Soldier Niall, War AU, ed and Niall are kind of a thing, ex soldier louis, ex soldier zayn, kind of sad, soldier ed, star-based, trigger warning suicide, zayn is a dick (as always)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 11:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6192520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_lwt/pseuds/starlight_lwt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a countdown until Harry comes home from the war, but then he doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	somethings still shine brighter on the other side

Twenty-eight months.  
Louis woke Harry on the morning of his farewell, back to a war that they may be destined to win but never destined to return from. Louis made or at least tried to make Harry a fry up to begin their day. Harry would be departing at 8am. He was packed and ready, heading to France with the boys: Liam, Niall, and Ed. Louis, however, was never ready. He has tears in his eyes from the moment he awakens to the time when Harry leaves, not sure to ever return. 

Harry and Louis head out for their two hour train ride from Manchester to London. Upon arrival, Louis immediately feels discomforted by all the teary eyes of people sending their loved ones away. They see Zayn hugging Liam and Niall talking to Ed and begin to walk over. They soon become a big pile of hugs and farewells. Harry pulls Louis away from the group of chattering men and begins his farewell speech. Louis appreciates it, he really does, but it honestly just makes him sadder. 

Liam, Niall, Ed, and Harry wave one last time and then they're off to fight. Zayn and Louis stand hugging as they watch their boys fade off into the distance. Louis then sulks home, but not before Zayn makes sure that he will call if he needs someone to cry to. 

Fourteen months.  
Louis never stops watching the television, the news to be exact. Always anxiously awaiting news on the war that his soon to be fiancé is fighting with his pals. It always seems so surreal when Harry is sent off to battle. Why him? Why was his life offered before the others? Why did he agree? Will he come home? That question always brings more tears to his eyes. 

Zayn visits Louis knowing that the boy is in a deep spiral of depression. When Zayn comes over, he just paints Louis in his depressed state, hanging them along a new wall each time Harry goes to war to see how many times Louis has been majorly depressed without his boy. Of course they receive letters once every week or two, but it's not enough. It's never enough, until Louis gets to see Harry again, but it works for a while. 

Seven months.  
They receive news that some of their friends have died in battle, thankfully not Harry, Liam, Niall, or Ed though. But weeks pass, and they seem to be getting more and more death notices. Soon it turns into their close friends appearing on the list, Niall and Ed died with some other comrades, bombed they say. How were they supposed to mourn when they were just thankful their boyfriends weren't there? Of course they cry, it's all they seem to do nowadays. They had all been friends since high school, never seeming to let one another go. They had all been to war together, broken but most definitely alive. What's there to do now? Sit and here and mope until their boys come home, some in caskets. 

News upon news, never ending death notices, going to funerals cold and emotionless, wishing now that he could just get his boy back, their boys back. Zayn takes Louis to art museums, galleries where even Zayn's amazing art is shown. Paintings of war and blood and death, it soon becomes too much for Louis and he breaks into a sobbing mess on the ground right next to Zayn's painting of Louis in his hospital bed after he was shot several times, all ill looking but smiling, nonetheless. 

Five months.  
Times are different now. Zayn practically lives with Louis because he can't seem to pull himself out of bed to eat, only to use the bathroom. The news is always blaring on the television in Louis's room, even when he is asleep, he's listening. Zayn grows quite impatient over the coming weeks with Louis, he is a complete emotional wreck. He has nightmares, horrifying nightmares, where Harry dies and Zayn makes his boy's death into art. He can't handle it anymore, he tells Zayn that he's going to have to change his style, the artwork is becoming too vivid in his ramshackle mind. 

Three months. Harry is due back home in three long months, Louis is finally calm, still worried, but calm. Smiles now grace his face with the knowledge that his Harry will return soon enough, Zayn can't help but smile, too. Everything seems like it's going to end in a happy ever after, until it doesn't.

One month.  
The team is mostly dead, Harry, Liam, and three other soldiers are the only ones alive. Valentine's Day, Harry and Liam are due home on Valentine's Day. Louis starts planning for the occasion early, confident that his love is destined to return back to him. Extravagant dinner, expensive champagne, rose petals, and no bullets, a lovely evening for two (ex)-soldiers. 

Thirteen Days.  
It is Harry's birthday, Louis still celebrates the wondrous occasion of his baby being born. Zayn and Louis are as high and as drunk as Niall right now, somewhere in the heavens, fits and giggles on the floor. There is a knock on the door, Louis stumbles to reach it. It's news about Liam and Harry, they're dead, shot down they say. Louis stops giggling, starts sobbing, actually. Zayn falls in a heap on the floor, "it can't be true, it can't be true.", he cries. "On his birthday???", cries the other. Their loves, their boys are gone, but they're not, caskets arrive before they can even blink. Questions upon questions of would they like to see the bodies, the boys gently say "no, save it for when we're not high off our asses." 

Zero Days.  
Liam and Harry are supposed to be home right now, Louis disappears, slips from Zayn's grasp. He runs until he can't anymore, he finds himself at the boys' base. He finds a nice gun, shiny and shimmering, and puts it first to his heart and then quickly to this head. Zayn, however, is perfectly fine without any of his best friends alive and well. He even finds a replacement for all of them, he even gets a new boyfriend. His career as an artist skyrockets and he is sent into extreme fame, which was all on account of his 'boys' because he paints them dead. 

Afterlife.  
As soon as someone dies and is sent to the afterlife, everyone in the afterlife hears about it, so when Harry years that Louis is in the afterlife he thinks that it can't possibly be his Louis. Harry, Niall, Liam, and Ed all go searching for Louis, and find him at the reception desk. Harry smiles, now his Lou is a star in all aspects of the word.


End file.
